Psychology at Stormont

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Psychology at Stormont

• 24th September 2013

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Health Psychologists

• Work with people who need to manage physical
  health and illness issues, including
• Changing diet
• Increasing exercise
• Increasing uptake of immunisation
• Quitting smoking
• Increasing incidence and length of breastfeeding
• Increasing uptake of screening
• Pain management
• Coping with chronic illness
• Managing stress
• Improving medication adherence

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An Example medication adherence
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Cost of Non-adherence

• Up to 60 of people with long term illness do not
  take their medication as prescribed
• In UK, costs of hospital admissions due to
  medication non-adherence is up to 196 million
  per year
• Breast Cancer Campaign - up to 30m could be
  saved each year

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Health Psychology Works

• Psychological interventions
• increase adherence to blood pressure medication,
  whereas patient education alone is largely
  unsuccessful.
• improve blood sugar control among adults with
  Type 2 Diabetes
• are 3 times more effective than educational
  interventions in improving adherence among young
  people with chronic illness